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[Essay] The economic crisis in Greece may lead up to a civil war

Hello everyone. I took an article in the New York Times as a starting point to write a short essay about the economic plight of Greece and its likely outcome. I would like to know what you think about it. :)

People still haunt the bars, revellers keep on hanging out and going to clubs and tourists still flock the country. But, underneath this mask of normality, lies an unpleasant truth: Greece is now coming apart. In the halcyon days, the stream of public money concealed some of the problems. Today, the country is in the throes of an economic crisis that has lasted for five years now. This is the upshot of the austerity measures the so-called troika of international lenders has dictated to Greece’s government. What’s more, the new taxes levied on an already worn out population and paired with catastrophic spending cuts have brought on the unravelling of the bonds of civility.

All Greece seems to be at variance. Political disorders are widespread, with members of the neo-Nazi Golden Down party violently clashing with leftists and immigrants, while the police turn a blind eye or even covertly approve of their crimes. Politicians call one another names in Parliament, while many of them find themselves implicated in corruption and wrongdoing scandals. But they are not the only one to swear at each other. The young are at odds with the old. The unemployed hate those who still have a job. The haves are confronted with the have-nots.

And there is no end in sight for the Greek plight. The European Union is not likely to shift to a looser stance on Greece’s public debt anytime soon. That being the case, we might be coming up against a disastrous scenario. Perhaps, a civil war will break out in Greece and, to be sure, harsher clashes are brewing now too. This is unpalatable to say, but we may be facing up to a full-blown war in the foreseeable future.

Re: [Essay] The economic crisis in Greece may lead up to a civil war

Economic crisis affect almost all of the things around us. Especially those country who may lead in civil war just like Greece. A pair of recent economic reports seems to present contradictory assessments of consumer attitudes about the economy. However, taken together, perhaps they just emphasize the financial doubt and confusion that is so easy to understand at this time of political brinkmanship. Pay for your needs while in between checks with "[name removed by another moderator]" with [website address removed].

Last edited by Barb_D; 07-Mar-2013 at 14:10.
Reason: Website address removed by moderator.

Re: [Essay] The economic crisis in Greece may lead up to a civil war

Originally Posted by carolgreen

Economic crisis affects almost all of the things around us, especially those countrieswhowhich may leadend up in civil war just like Greece. A pair of recent economic reports seemsseem to present contradictory assessments of consumer attitudes about the economy. However, taken together, perhaps they just emphasize the financial doubt and confusion that is so easy to understand at this time of political brinkmanship.

Pretty sure the previous message was spam given the standard of English from a supposed native English speaker and the presence of an unauthorised website link, which I have removed. However, in case the message is left to stand, I have corrected it so that it at least makes sense.

Remember - if you don't use correct capitalisation, punctuation and spacing, anything you write will be incorrect.

Re: [Essay] The economic crisis in Greece may lead up to a civil war

Originally Posted by Gippì

Hello everyone. I took an article in the New York Times as a starting point to write a short essay about the economic plight of Greece and its likely outcome. I would like to know what you think about it. :)

People still haunt the bars, revellers keep on hanging out and going to clubs and tourists still flock to the country. But (no comma required) underneath this mask of normality (no comma required) lies an unpleasant truth: Greece is now coming apart. In the halcyon days, the stream of public money concealed some of the problems. Today, the country is in the throes of an economic crisis that has lasted for five years now. This is the upshot of the austerity measures the so-called troika of international lenders has dictated to Greece’s government. What’s more, the new taxes levied on an already worn-out population and paired with catastrophic spending cuts have brought on the unravelling of the bonds of civility.

All of Greece seems to be at variance. Political disorders are widespread, with members of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party violently clashing with leftists and immigrants, while the police turn a blind eye or even covertly approve of their crimes. Politicians call one another names in Parliament, while many of them find themselves implicated in corruption and wrongdoing scandals. But they are not the only ones to swear at each other. The young are at odds with the old. The unemployed hate those who still have a job. The haves are confronted with the have-nots. (Perhaps "The haves confront the have-nots" or "The haves are confronted by the have-nots".)

And there is no end in sight for the Greek plight. The European Union is not likely to shift to a looser stance on Greece’s public debt anytime soon. That being the case, we might be coming up againstheading for a disastrous scenario. Perhaps (no comma required) a civil war will break out in Greece and , to be sure, harsher clashes are certainly brewing now too. This is unpalatable to say, but we may be facing up to a full-blown war in the foreseeable future.

See above for my (few) suggested amendments. Generally, it is well-written. I would be interested to see the original newspaper article to see how much your essay varies from the original.

Remember - if you don't use correct capitalisation, punctuation and spacing, anything you write will be incorrect.

Re: [Essay] The economic crisis in Greece may lead up to a civil war

I think the error in 'Economic crisis affect...' was the second i in 'crisis'; the plural of crisis is the irregular 'crises' - pronounced /kraɪsi:z/ (which may be misspelt as 'crisis' by non-native speakers). But it doesn't matter anyway - the post was a shameless, laughable and incompetent bit of ill-concealed spam. But with the link gone, I think there's no harm in leaving it.

Gippi: 'The economic crisis in Greece may lead up to a civil war' - that's the Br English anyway.

b

PS Gippi: re the Down/Dawn mistake; there may be a problem here with pronouncing V+w: 'ow' is usually /aʊ/ or /əʊ/', 'aw' is usually /ɔ:/. I've heard 'aw' words (notably 'law', in the otherwise very good pronunciation of a young Spanish lady) as /əʊ/

Re: [Essay] The economic crisis in Greece may lead up to a civil war

Thank you both for your corrections and suggestions. As for the down/dawn mistake, it was only a typo, as I know the difference of pronunciation between "ow" and "aw" in this case. I wrote this text using a word-processor with no spell-checker, so I couldn't correct mistyped words immediately.

Unfortunately, I can't retrieve the article I based my text upon. Anyway, I would like to ask you, emsr2d2, why "to be sure" cannot be used here: "to be sure, harsher clashes are brewing now too". Thank you again.

P.S.

The haves are confronted with the have-nots. (Perhaps "The haves confront the have-nots" or "The haves are confronted by the have-nots".)